More than 3,000 residents of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, found refuge from the tsunami on the grounds of the Jesuits' St. Michael's College in the city.

Batticaloa, Sri Lanka/Sunday, December 26, 2004--Around 9 A.M. a tidal wave about ten feet high surged from the ocean across the narrow strip of land, spilling over into the lagoon on the other side ... St. Sebastian's Church and parish house were flooded up to the first-floor level. The waters surged across St. Ignatius Church and parish house, inundating the buildings. People in the church were safe. People living all along the sea coast were washed away and drowned. About 300 bodies were laid out in the mortuary and wards of the Batticaloa hospital in the evening. Many more are feared dead.

--Fr. Guy Rajendram, SJ
Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

Fr. Rajendram, SJ, and all other Jesuits in the tsunami's path ended up safe, but the communities they serve in many of the countries hit by the tsunami face unimaginable losses. Jesuits and their lay co-workers sprang into action to help with the huge relief effort of providing food, shelter, and comfort to thousands across the affected areas.

Provincial of the Australia Province Fr. Mark Raper, SJ, happened to be in the Hazaribag Province in India when the disaster occurred. He quickly got in touch with fellow Jesuits Fr. Maria Anthony, provincial of Sri Lanka; Fr. Francis Xavier, provincial of the Madurai Province in India; and Fr. Andre Sugijopranoto, regional director of Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) for Asia Pacific, to offer financial help and prayers from his province.

In Rome, the Jesuits' superior general Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach also quickly sent relief money for necessities, and JRS began coordinating donations and relief efforts. There was a lot to do.

First response

The Society has a presence in each of the hardest hit countries: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. Jesuits opened their homes to victims in many places, including Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, where the Jesuits' St. Michael's College took in over 3,000 people on its grounds. Other Jesuit communities in the country--in Galle, Trincomalee, and Colombo--also opened their churches and residences for those in need.

Xavier, provincial of Madurai, wrote shortly after the tsunami that in India, Jesuit scholastics were already in the field working and Sugijopranoto was on his way to Banda Aceh, Indonesia, to join a JRS team at work. JRS established 49 camps there shortly after the tsunami struck.

By December 29, Fr. Derrick Mendis, SJ, Sri Lanka Province treasurer, had already traveled to Galle to bring funds and assess what the Jesuits needed to do there, as other Jesuits in the province headed out to other areas. " I have never in my 68 years seen such large-scale devastation ... Concrete telephone posts had fallen, bent and broken. Railway lines were twisted like those of a toy train set," he wrote. Sri Lankan Jesuit Chryso Pieris noted: "By ourselves we may not be able to reach even 10 percent of the people affected, but we shall work with the government and other agencies. We shall do the most we can, but it depends on the generosity of the people, local and abroad. Funds are coming in. But when you see the enormity of the destruction looming before you, you feel helpless and humbled."

In Thailand, Spanish Jesuit Fr. Alfonso de Juan, who has been there for 40 years, said, "The country is united. Thailand reacted quickly and efficiently." Interpreters were needed in Bangkok hospitals, and Fr. Martín Suhartono, SJ, who speaks several languages, served as one.

Fr. Prakash Louis, SJ, with Sri Lanka's Jesuit Tsunami Relief and Rehabilitation Board, said that Jesuit efforts need to be channeled as much as possible through local groups and organizations: "Addressing the requirements of the really needy will be a long-standing and demanding commitment."

The Jesuit Refugee Service helped transport about 3,000 refugees from a camp at an Islamic boarding school in Aceh, Indonesia, devastated by the tragedy, to a new site. Rains were persistently flooding the old camp.

Destruction and devastation

"I had not been to Aceh before the disaster and have no mental image to compare it to, but in between twisted metal and scattered bricks are signs of the life that once was: a family picture, clothes, the head of a tiny yellow teddy bear. On a rock, someone had placed a spoon and the miracle of an intact porcelain plate, signaling hope that their owner will one day come back."

These were the observations JRS Indonesia advocacy manager Ingvild Solvang made after witnessing the damage, and it's clear that the effects of the disaster will leave their mark on the people and region for years. The lasting emotional trauma could be as devastating as the initial destruction. Sugijopranoto described a phone conversation he had with a JRS staffer in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, who described flooded stores with floating dead bodies, people searching for water, and children who had lost parents.

"Corpses, corpses, and more corpses. That is Banda Aceh now," the staffer said. "Walking on foot in the streets, it is all corpses. The river behind the office is full of floating corpses. Yesterday they buried 40 ... Right now there are many traumatized people. People scream Water! Water! while running. But there is no water."

On the first day of the new year, Fr. Paul Satkunanayagam, SJ, in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, wrote, "The devastation, destruction, loss of lives, and mental health deterioration are beyond description and defy any kind of emotional sharing. The internecine war, which continued for almost two decades, created widows and orphans [see box story, pages 18-19]. This tsunami disaster has created many more widows and orphans. We worked with war-traumatized children. But now, we have to work with tsunami-traumatized children and adults."

A psychologist, Satkunanayagam is the founder of a center for war-traumatized children in Batticaloa. "Always, the human mind creates an enemy. Here you can't blame a human, so people blame God," he said.

Immediate needs, future action

Jesuits not only jumped into action but also steered thoughts and plans toward long-term relief as well. In Sri Lanka, where JRS has been since 1983, they drafted a plan for reconstruction and rehabilitation work. The first stages include taking care of the displaced at Jesuit institutions, building hundreds of new houses in each area, and purchasing fishing boats, nets, and other equipment for fishermen whose means of livelihood had been washed away.

The Sri Lanka Jesuit Tsunami Relief Project also calls for Jesuit intervention in four areas of great need: counseling and trauma therapy, health and sanitation, low-cost shelters, and protection of vulnerable groups such as widows and orphans.

The Sri Lanka Province noted that the Jesuits' attention must be directed toward areas overlooked by the state and pointed out the "imperative need for counseling and repairing the damaged lives of these people through appropriate therapies. For a start, the supply of playing materials will help wean the children from depression."

Fr. Veeresan Yogeswaran, SJ, in Sri Lanka's Trincomalee district, was another Jesuit to stress the importance of meeting the mental needs of survivors: "Depression is setting in among the victims; some have attempted suicide after losing everyone and everything."

The Jesuit provincial of Madurai in India appointed a committee to organize relief activities in Tamil Nadu. The team, headed by Fr. Manuel Alphonse, SJ, has set a number of priorities, including providing psychological counseling, medical help, housing, and fishing boats and nets.

Jesuits organized a team of 60 volunteers to canvass the residents of Nagoor, India, hard hit by the tsunami. Many of the volunteers were social work students from area universities who helped document residents' losses and needs.

According to Fr. Joseph Xavier, SJ, the government has already started rebuilding in Tamil Nadu. The major task facing the Jesuit effort, according to him, is "monitoring the rehabilitation program of the government and linking up all the affected people to access the government package" to ensure that no one is left out.

In JRS's project proposal for Aceh and Sumatra in Indonesia, emergency-stage goals included feeding and caring for the displaced. But JRS also proposed plans for long-term needs, such as maintaining health and sanitation conditions, getting medicine for the sick, educating children, healing trauma, and helping people start generating income. Other JRS plans include establishing communal kitchens, stocking them with pots and pans and water for families' use, and providing medical supplies to area health stations.

In Sri Lanka, JRS has been addressing immediate needs by cleaning water wells and supplying food and sanitation items to camps, and it plans to rebuild schools as a longer-term goal. But Fr. Vinny Joseph, SJ, Sri Lanka's JRS director, noted that the biggest challenge was how to help people from the camps come to terms with what happened.

And Solvang posed hard questions: "What is needed for people to restore a livelihood? What is needed in terms of psychosocial support to overcome the traumas and losses that the people have suffered? And importantly, how can we involve the survivors in the rebuilding of communities to prevent long-term displacement?"

Established presence

One of JRS's priorities is to go where other organizations aren't. For instance, in late January, volunteers from JRS arrived by boat to Aceh Island, a two-hour boat ride from Banda Aceh, where JRS has been since 2001.

JRS team members, the first relief group to visit the island, surveyed the damage and made plans to return displaced villagers. They were also joined by volunteers who helped bury the dead; only 600 of about 1,500-2,000 villagers survived the tsunami.

In Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, Jesuits and other volunteers organized relief work in communities not yet reached by any assistance efforts. They got essentials--food, clothes, and medicine--into the hands of the needy in several camps. The people were also informed about free legal assistance that Yogeswaran, an attorney who runs the Center for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, could help provide.

Fr. Harry Miller, SJ, originally from the New Orleans Province, has been in Sri Lanka for 57 years. At age 80, he sees years of work ahead:

"We'll have to rebuild. We Jesuits already have plans on paper for 600 homes at various disaster centers around the island. Here in Batticaloa we will program 100 new houses on assurances we have of help.

"We know our work will stretch into years. But our missionaries have already been here since 1890--I since 1948. That's one of the things we've learned to do. We count in years. We count on those who will help us survive, yet again, and the local people who help fill our ranks."

Fr. A. Sahaya Philomin Raj, SJ, a lawyer who runs a legal aid program in Vailankanni, India, talks with fishermen from the village of Seruthur about their losses and what assistance they can expect from the government.

Jesuit Refugee Service team member Sandy Firmansyah just marked the spot where he found the body of a tsunami victim on Aceh Island, off mainland Indonesia. JRS was burying the dead in preparation for returning the displaced to the island.

Children's needs

In Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, Jesuits responded to the needs of orphaned children, visiting camps and organizing games. In Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, Fr. Anthony Pillai, SJ, trained JRS personnel and others in counseling skills.

It was on January 10 that schools were reopened in Galle, Sri Lanka, though few students came. At the Jesuits' St. Aloysius College, which lost two teachers, morning assembly included an address from the principal, after which students, parents, and teachers prayed as a community. Tailors were at work sewing new uniforms for students; trauma counseling is a priority to help them emotionally.

In late January, children in Aceh headed back to school.

"The work faces tremendous challenges," JRS education officer Nanang said. "According to the [Indonesian] government, 117,000 students have lost their schools. Seventy thousand students and 1,747 teachers are reported dead or missing. Eleven hundred schools have been destroyed. School material is desperately needed. Worst of all, the teachers are victims themselves. They are traumatized and have lost their homes and families. It is a difficult task to rise up to their duty of teaching under these circumstances."

"Seeing that children get back to school is one of the most important aspects in rebuilding Aceh," said Solvang. "Many children in Aceh have died in the tragedy. At the same time it is important to focus on the survivors and how to build a better future. JRS does not agree that a generation is lost in Aceh, as portrayed by some media. On the contrary, we see that there are thousands of surviving children, who more than ever need our support--not only now, but in years to come."

Becky Troha, Company's assistant editor, graduated from Loyola University Chicago and is pursuing a master's in writing at DePaul University.

JRS is supplying schools in Aceh, Aceh Besar, and Meulaboh with supplies, such as notebooks and pens. "Later on, we plan to focus on sports and recreational equipment for children and youth," Solvang said.

In the coming months, even years, Jesuits and their lay co-workers will continue to help meet victims' physical and material as well as emotional needs. Recent JRS reports estimate that about 440,000 have been displaced in Aceh, Indonesia, and half a million in Sri Lanka; JRS has already received more than $700,000 in donations for helping tsunami victims.

As Amalraj reported in early January, "Our counselors have been moving from camp to camp together with our teachers, just listening to the people telling them about their traumatic stories and allowing them to pour out their feelings and thus filling them with solace, comfort, and hope."